The invention disclosed herein was made under, or in, the course of ERDA Contract No. AT(04-3)-515 with Stanford University.
The present invention relates to the use of crossed electric and magnetic fields in a cathode-anode diode sputtering array for deposition of a thin film on a workpiece, and more particularly, it relates to mounting the workpiece in a position in which the workpiece is outside the space for discharge between the anode and cathode and it further relates to coating a microwave component with titanium nitride to reduce multipactoring.
Thin film deposition by sputtering within crossed electric and magnetic fields has been proposed before and various arrangements of cathodes and anodes are known in the art, for example the arrangements disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,146,025, issued Feb. 7, 1939, to F. M. Penning, and the arrangement suggested by L. Holland in his book (Vacuum Deposition of Thin Films, John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1958, pages 411 and 412). However, the workpiece in these prior arrangements has been placed in a position in which the workpiece is within the cathode-anode discharge space and/or has the cathode or anode potential applied to the workpiece, thereby subjecting the workpiece to excessive ion bombardment, both positive and negative, and high electrical field stresses which usually cause puncturing of the workpiece; and it is very difficult in these prior arrangements to prevent such puncturing. Other problems encountered with the prior art arrangements include difficulty in controlling the thickness and uniformity of the deposition.